Lynne Counsell

This Q&A considers the situation where a married couple jointly own property as tenants in common and both die within a short period of time. Each leaves their property according to their respective Wills. The question is, what is the position once the property has been sold in relation to the executor’s year and interest?

This Q&A deals with the situation where a residuary beneficiary is entitled to a share of the estate and wishes chattels to be appropriated to them in respect of that share. In particular, it considers whether all the other residuary beneficiaries have to agree to this when the Will is silent on appropriation.

This Q&A considers termination clauses and the meaning of ‘ceases to carry on business’ in relation to both statutory provisions and commercial contracts.

This Q&A considers whether a separate English and French Wills should be made where a testator has assets in the UK and real property in France and wishes English law to apply to their worldwide estate.

This Q&A deals with the position of a fund manager of an internally managed closed ended company under the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Regulations 2013.

This Q&A considers the powers of an attorney executor to apply to reseal an English grant overseas.

This Q&A considers whether rental income from a tenanted commercial property comprised in a deceased’s estate should be paid into the estate or whether it can be paid directly to the beneficiary to whom the property has been devised under the will.

This Q&A considers the validity of a grant issued to an attorney acting on behalf of an executor under a general power of attorney where the executor subsequently loses mental capacity.

This Q&A considers an executor’s liability for a decision of a co-executor with which they disagreed but reluctantly went along with.

This Q&A considers the legal status of a solely owned property where the owner dies intestate and the estate remains unadministered and the rights of the surviving spouse to treat the property as their own while registered in the name of the deceased.

This Q&A considers how to make a conditional gift to an ex-spouse in a Will, as required in a court order.

This Q&A deals with the factual situation where an individual signed a deed of gift which transferred a real property to their children. The property was sold before legal title had been transferred to the children. The individual then signed cheques representing the proceeds of sale five months later. The question is were the gifts complete and, if so, when—on the execution of the deed of gift or on the signing of the cheques representing the proceeds? The deceased died more than seven years after signing the deed of gift but less than seven years after signing the cheques.

The Q&A considers whether an appointed legal guardian has the right to access estate accounts on behalf of the minor beneficiary.

This Q&A considers whether a spouse can wait until a minor beneficiary of the intestate estate reaches the age of 18 before applying for letters of administration on their own without a second administrator.

This Q&A deals with the situation where the donor of a registered property and financial affairs lasting power of attorney (LPA) has lost capacity. The question is whether their attorney needs to apply for approval from the Court of Protection to transfer assets to a bare Personal Injury trust of which the donor of the LPA is the sole beneficiary.

This Q&A considers who has power to appoint new trustees of a trust where the sole surviving trustee has lost capacity and there is nobody else with the power to appoint new trustees.

This Q&A considers the factual position where three property owners (A, B and C) held property as beneficial tenants in common. A has died, leaving A’s beneficial interest to B and C. The question is whether a grant of probate needs to be obtained by A’s personal representatives in order to transfer A’s beneficial interest to B and C. Furthermore, this Q&A considers whether there is a time limit for applying for the grant of probate.

This Q&A deals with limitation of liability clauses in commercial contracts, including why do some clauses in such contracts exclude liability for loss of: profit; revenue (or turnover); and business and what do each of these exclusions potentially cover and is it useful to refer to all of these heads of loss when seeking to exclude financial liability.

This Q&A deals with the question as to whether the probate office will accept a certified copy of a lost Will or whether there is a presumption that the Will was revoked by the testator having destroyed it.

This Q&A considers how a married couple or civil partners making Wills to leave their shares of the family home on trust for the survivor of them on the first death and then to their children absolutely on the second death would affect the availability of the RNRB to their respective estates on death.